What is this my Son Tom.

DateJune 24, 1774

Publisher Robert Sayer (1725-1794) & John Bennett (fl. 1760-1787)

MediumMezzotint engraving with period hand color

DimensionsOverall: 14 1/8 × 10 1/2in. (35.9 × 26.7cm) Other (Plate): 13 5/8 × 9 7/8in. (34.6 × 25.1cm)

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1941-8

DescriptionThe lower margin reads: "What is this my Son Tom./ Our wise Forefathers would express/ Ev'n Sensibility in Dress;/ The modern Race delight to Shew/ What Folly in Excess can do:/ The honest Farmer, come to Town, Can scarce believe his Son his own:/ If thus the Taste continues Here,/ What will it be another Year?/ London, Published by R. Sayer & J. Bennett N.o 53 Fleet Street, as the Act directs 24 June 1774."
Label TextThe prints make fun generational differences in fashion between this father dressed for the country though he’s visiting the city (which would have looked odd as well) and his decked-out son. The passage pokes fun at youth culture and the fleeting nature of fashion:

Our wise fathers would expres(s)
Ev’n Sensibility in Dress;
The modern Race delight to Shew
What Folly in Excess can do:
The honest Farmer, come to town,
Can scarce believe his Son his own.
If thus the Taste continues Here.
What will it be another Year?

The surprised father is dressed in traditional or old-fashioned clothes. He's meant to look like someone coming into the city from the country, wearing riding boots with spurs and boot garters to hold them up and spurs. He’s wearing a great coat, the utilitarian coat of the 18th century, and a practical larger hat to protect from sun and weather. The print shows young man dressed in clothing that would have been understood as visual shorthand for “macaroni,” a term used to describe a sub-culture of fashionably dressed men during the period. In this example, he wears (from top to bottom): a tiny, cocked hat atop his hair. His hair is dressed in a towering “toupée” on top and a large “club” of hair down his back with two large curls called buckles. He is accessorized with a large nosegay or corsage; a coat with a shorter skirt; a cane with tassels; an ornate silver-hilted sword (a cuttoe or hunting sword) with elaborate sword-knot; and silver knee and shoe buckles. The tight-fitting clothing, particularly his coat was often associated with macaronis – sometimes called in period sources “a macaroni coat.” Contemporary audiences would have associated the type of coat he is wearing riding, hunting, or sporting which would have looked strange on a city-dweller like this young man.